PIKO STONES, OR GAME BOARDS?

PuuLoa, Hawaii, Photograph Joe Belef, 2007. 

PuuLoa, Hawaii, Photograph Joe Belef, 2007.

On November 17, 2012, I put up a posting about Hawaiian Piko stones. These are stones with holes pecked into them that serve as receptacles for the umbilical cords of newborn infants, the belief being that spiritual benefits will accrue to the newborn because of this. Rock surfaces with pecked holes can be found worldwide, and, because of the recorded Hawaiian purpose for such holes they are often, and usually incorrectly, also interpreted as umbilical cord receptacles, Piko stones around the world. As I have stated before we just cannot take a piece of data from one culture and simply apply it to another culture without considerable supporting evidence. We cannot even assume that similar items from within the same culture all have similar uses.

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua valley, Honolulu.

Photograph Peter Faris,10-23-2010.

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua valley, Honolulu.

Photograph Peter Faris,10-23-2010.

Field sketch of Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley,

Oahu, Ancient Sites of Oahu, Van James

Bishop Museum Press,  p. 50.

On Dec. 1, 2010, I had posted a column about a rock art site on the Hawaiian island of Oahu that has a grouping of pits in its upper surface that are considered to be a game board, not a piko stone. This site, named Pohaku Ka Luahine, is found in Moanalua valley and consists of a large round boulder. It is densly pecked with lines and figures as well as the game board. I could not really distinguish the grid of pits of the konane game board on the top of the boulder. This is a checkers-like game played with black and white pebbles by Hawaiians and examples have reportedly been found with one hundred or more pits pecked into boulders. This particular boulder is quite eroded and given the dim light under the jungle canopy there were few options for visual clues from side lighting.If there was any patina on the boulder surface it was the same color and value as the rock itself because there was virtually no color difference to go by. Details were hard to see and really did not come through well in the photos at all. I have illustrated it with an obviously incomplete field sketch from the Bishop Museum which does not include many of the lines and images visible in the photograph of the boulder. This is, however, an instance of an attributed game board in rock art.

So, what are the examples in the photographs by Joe Belef, Piko stones, game boards, or something else? Notice that on the game board boulder the pits are arranged in rows in a grid pattern. Also, there are many other petroglyphs of figures, etc., on the Pohaku Ka Luahine. Examples of actual attributed Piko stones that I have seen did not have the pits arranged in a grid, and they had no other figures on them. By comparison, these examples then have to be classified as either, or both, or something else entirely, because they have additional figures but are not arranged in grid patterns. Interesting? 

REFERENCE:

James, Van

2010    Ancient Sites of O’ahu, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, p.50

POHAKU KA LUAHINE, MOANALUA VALLEY, OAHU:

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing one deeply

pecked anthropomorph and some random markings and grooves

on the top. Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Pohaku Ka Luahine is said to translate as "the rock of the old woman". It was reportedly given this name after an incident in which a child broke kapu by crying at a religious ceremony, an offense punishable by death. The child’s grandmother ran up the valley with it and hid behind the stone until the kapu expired and the warriors stopped searching for them.

 

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing 

random markings and grooves on the top.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing two faintly

pecked anthropomorphs and the trunk of the mango tree it sits under.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Wikipedia gives a short history of the Moanalua valley. “Samuel Mills Damon inherited the ahupuaʻa (uplands-to-sea tract) of Moanalua in 1884 from Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose husband Charles Reed Bishop was a business partner of Damon. Before her, since the lands were won in battle by Kamehameha I they passed from Kameʻeiamoku to Ulumāheihei Hoapili, then to Prince Lot Lot Kapuāiwa (who became King Kamehameha V), and Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Damon later became one of the first trustees of the Kamehameha Schools established by the Bishops. The Damon estate sold much of Moanalua to commercial and residential developers in 1956.” Formerly part of Samuel Mills Damon estate, the trail follows the old estate carriage road up the valley from the Moanalua Valley park.

Old carriage road hiking trail, Moanalua Valley, Oahu.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Cobbles of the old carriage road hiking trail, Moanalua

Valley, Oahu. Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

With cousin Rob as my guide we hiked up the cobbles of the old carriage road the requisite seven crossings of the stream and there on the right under the mango tree just as described was the petroglyph boulder Pohaku Ka Luahine. Earlier records credit this boulder with twenty one anthropomorphic figures as well as a 90-point konane game board (James 2010:49). Unfortunately it has received a certain amount of vandalism and appears to have suffered from weathering erosion as well. A few traditional style Hawaiian figures are visible on the sides of the stone. I could not really see the grid of pits of the konane game board supposedly pecked into the top. This is a checkers-like game played with black and white pebbles by Hawaiians and examples have been found with one hundred and more pits pecked into boulders. Given the dim light under the jungle canopy there were few options for visual clues from side-lighting, the surface of the boulder appears fairly uniform, and much of what can be seen did not come through on photos.


It was certainly a lovely hike through the jungle though, well worth it for the exercise alone, and to also see the rock art made it a really special afternoon.

Reference:

James, Van
2010      Ancient Sites of Oahu: Revised Edition, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.